Scroll Painting (Jullien Instructions 2)

In the Chinese culture not only were the paintings infused with Shi, but the material the paintings were painted on were also infused with Shi.

Jullien makes it a point to note that the scroll was an important part of the painting process, especially since its unfolding allows for the necessary affect of time: the bottom part of a scroll is spring, the middle is summer, and the end is winter (138).

This movement in the painting can be seen in static form with images such as this one:




This is a static image. Sure, our eyes move in circles as the season changes, but we don't feel the actual motion of the season: There is no feeling of plentitude during the summer, for instance, that we would get as the scroll physically fills our hand as we are unrolling it.

Another interesting feature is this: The name of the scroll. In modern times, when someone says that word "Scroll" the first thing that comes to mind is the computer interface, not the ancient form of paper.

I find the idea of scrolling interesting in this respect, and with the respect of different cultures. Let me explain:

If I'm showing my parents something online and I'm controlling the mouse and they say "scroll down" what they mean is to go back to the top of the page. I'm not sure if you've noticed, you probably have, but the scroll bar to the right of the screen (usually) goes in the opposite direction of the page that needs to be scrolled. You move the scroll bar down, and the text moves up.

When I say "Scroll down" what I mean is move to the bottom of the page - I mean to go forward in the time of the text, but my parents (and others) mean to go backwards.

This is particularly interesting when it comes to comics and other forms of visual rhetoric (but especially comics in the digital age). When artists feel the freedom to create comic strips that denote movement, so that, for instance, as you move (forward in time) down the page, a character seems to be falling.

We are here presented with a contrast: Do Chinese people now read bottom to top, as if unrolling a scroll? I don't think they do, but how does that change (everything?)?

Of course, the blog format is also altering time in a way because we DO read present to past when we're reading blogs - the most recent post is on the top. This is telling of the subscription feature since no many people will go through most blogs and read every single post (past -> present).

The only time one could do it is in situations like this. For this reason, I am going to purposefully just draft all of my posts so that I can manipulate them spatially so that they adhere to the reader's time. This is a process, an experiment in time manipulation. But here is the instruction:

Instruction: Post something really long and then post it upside down. whether this is a series of photographs that you've taken, or just a random, simple/complex art project that you've done. Your first post should be the upside down one so as to disengage you from your original work.What does scrolling in basically two different directions do to your perception? Do you gain a different meaning from the different way that the "scroll was unraveled?"